Pueblo Survivor Named Naval History Author of the Year
U.S. Naval Reserve Lieutenant F. Carl “Skip” Schumacher was named the posthumous recipient of the Naval History 2018 Author of the Year Award at the 146th U.S. Naval Institute Annual Meeting on 25 April.
Schumacher, who died in May 2018, was honored for his article recounting his experience as a prisoner of war in North Korea in the wake of the 1968 capture of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) (see “Hell and Back,” February 2018, pp. 42–47).
As a 24-year-old lieutenant (junior grade), he had been the Pueblo’s operations officer on 23 January 1968, when the ship was attacked by North Koreans in a one-sided battle that ended within an hour and saw one member of her crew dead and the rest taken hostage.
Schumacher and the other captives were subjected to random, brutal, and sometimes daily torture for 11 months. They also were forced to write letters and confessions while in captivity, but the crew resisted by inserting nonsense phrases as acts of resistance, efforts often led by Schumacher, who was known for his wit, humor, and irreverence. Other acts of resistance included giving speeches similarly laced with nonsensical phrases and metaphors and displaying crude hand gestures in propaganda photos and videos.
Accepting the award on Schumacher’s behalf were his children, Irene Allen and John Schumacher.
“Not everyone in the Navy believed that the Pueblo crew were an example of what to do when captured,” said Allen, Schumacher’s stepdaughter. “I’d like to say thank you, thank you so much, from us, from the families who did think these guys were heroes because they are, and Skip conducted himself with honor, every moment of every day.”
Schumacher’s son, John, added that if his father were alive to receive the award, he would have pointed out that “the crew never did receive a formal apology or acknowledgment from the Navy for their actions. He would also say that the crew of the Pueblo performed honorably and loyally throughout the attack, capture, and captivity.”
—Jennifer Pompi
Pacific Sub Squadron HQ Named in Honor of Konetzni
The Commander, Submarine Squadron 15 (CSS-15) headquarters building in Guam was named in honor of Vice Admiral Albert H. Konetzni Jr., U.S. Navy (Retired) during a ceremony on 19 April. Admiral Konetzni was the Pacific Submarine Force commander who saw to the squadron’s reactivation in 2001, which included forward-deploying three attack submarines out of Guam.
In renaming the headquarters, the Navy is honoring a forward-thinking Pacific submarine leader who ushered in a parade of changes to the undersea force 20 years ago. Those changes have proven prescient in light of today’s great-power competition with China.
“Vice Admiral Konetzni has been a mentor of mine for decades,” said Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson. “He taught me in clear terms that the three most important things about leading in our Navy were the people, the people, and the people. . . . His service and relationships in the Pacific are still defining the terms of our operations and partnerships there.”
“I’m honored as can be, and humbled,” said Admiral Konetzni, giving credit to all those who were instrumental in getting CSS-15 up and running again.
The decision to reestablish CSS-15 was one of a dizzying array of changes Konetzni implemented at the turn of the 21st century. When most military thinkers were seeking savings by reducing military force structure, Konetzni observed that demands by both the military and intelligence community for U.S. attack submarines were climbing.
While it wasn’t politically expedient, Kontezni raised alarms with leadership that more needed to be done. He undertook a number of steps within his span of control, to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the submarines operating in the Pacific.
In the 1990s, “it hit me that we were violating almost constantly the war plans that indicated how many submarines we were to have in the western Pacific,” Konetzni recalled. “I basically went on a campaign. . . . Sometimes I got myself in trouble.” His ideas started to get some traction on Capitol Hill in 2000, as influential Senators began to see the rationale of the admiral’s arguments—and the urgency of his cause. By early 2001, his trend-bucking initiatives were getting the greenlight.
Well before it became one of the predominant U.S. naval/geopolitical topics, years before the vaunted “Pacific pivot,” Konetzni had detected the undercurrents that eventually would spill over into today’s Asia-Pacific situation. “What we were seeing in the mid-’90s was a shift in Chinese thought,” he said. “They were going past the first island chain. About the same time, the Russians sent an Oscar-class submarine in the Pacific all the way to our West Coast. And I was thinking, they’re not doing this for nothing.”
Now validated by history, the erstwhile “lone voice crying in the wilderness” mused: “An intellectual argument will win the day. The problem is, you don’t know which day it will win!”
Posthumous Purple Hearts Awarded to Tampa crew
In a Memorial Day 2019 observance ceremony at U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Karl Shultz posthumously awarded ten Purple Hearts to crewmen of the USCG Tampa, sunk by a German torpedo in the waning months of World War I.
At the time of the Tampa’s loss, the Purple Heart was not authorized. In 1942, eligibility was extended to include the Coast Guard, but it was not until 1952 that the awarding of the Purple Heart was made retroactive for actions after 5 April 1917. The Tampa nonetheless remained overlooked until 1999, when then-Commandant Admiral James Loy authorized the posthumous awarding of the Purple Heart to her crew.
Some Purple Hearts were awarded in the ensuing years, but loose ends remained. The Tampa Purple Heart Project, an initiative spearheaded by archivist Nora Chidlow of the Coast Guard Historian’s Office, managed to track down the crew’s families. “After 101 years, it’s definitely a challenge,” she told the Fredericksburg, Virginia, Free Lance-Star in April. Her efforts came to fruition with the May ceremony, as the medals were bestowed on the descendants who had come to Washington to accept the honors.
Navy Cuts Ribbon on New Conservation Lab
The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) Conservation Branch officially opened its new, state-of-the-art artifact conservation lab during a ribbon cutting ceremony 1 May.
Located at NHHC’s Collection Management Facility (CMF) in Richmond, Virginia, the conservation lab now gives the Navy the ability to perform complex scientific conservation work on many of its more than 300,000 historic artifacts, a service that previously had to be contracted to civilian conservators.
According to David Krop, head of the Conservation Branch, the lab makes it possible for his team to preserve and protect the Navy’s history more effectively: “The Conservation Lab opening marks a notable shift in our capability as a command, and speaks volumes about the Navy’s dedication to proactively preserve the history and heritage of American sailors.” Krop added, “Being able to perform critical preservation work on our artifacts in-house means we’re better equipped to care for the Navy’s collection.”
The Conservation Branch is tasked with analyzing and conserving, as well as ensuring the proper care and preservation of, the Navy’s historical artifacts, such as ships’ bells, equipment, arms, ordnance, uniforms, personal equipment, and plaques.
These activities include condition assessments, scientific analysis, stabilization and treatment, artifact rehousing, developing appropriate storage solutions, and providing exhibit guidance and support. The ultimate goal is to increase the physical stability of the Navy’s artifact collection and provide the Navy and general public greater access to the collection.
Work formally began on the lab in October 2018, but the facility’s development started long before. In 2014, the NHHC opened its Collection Management Facility, which allowed the command to consolidate the Navy’s historic artifact collection from several different locations across the country. Having a space to safely store artifacts was just one part of the solution.
The need to perform preservation work on the items in the collection resulted in the establishment of the Conservation Branch in September 2015. As the staff grew it conducted preservation work on an ad hoc basis using the tools available at that time.
Conservation Branch personnel now can deploy their professional expertise in an appropriate laboratory setting. The facility is equipped with steel cabinetry and casework, chemical-resistant counters, mobile hydraulic workbenches, a water filtration system, climate-controlled artifact storage, and specialized tools, equipment, and consumables necessary to support treatment of textiles, metals, and other materials.
The lab opened for business with more than 1,400 square feet, 500 of which is for research and development. The R&D space gives conservators the ability to perform Smithsonian-level forensic science and analytical interpretation using top instrumentation such as a polarized light microscope, x-ray fluorescence unit, and multispectral imaging. Conservation staff also maintain a larger industrial treatment area within the warehouse complex for the treatment of larger artifacts, such as a 23-foot wooden sampan captured in 1968 by U.S. Navy forces during the Vietnam War. The sampan will be a focal point of Hampton Roads Naval Museum’s upcoming Vietnam exhibit.
“The Navy’s historic artifact collection depicts its 240‑plus‑year history, which, as you can imagine has some larger-than-average artifacts,” said Krop. “It’s our job to provide the treatment necessary to ensure these pieces of America’s history are preserved and available to publicly share the Navy’s story in perpetuity.”
—Mass Communications Specialist Second Class Mutis A. Capizzi, NHHC